University of Colorado GEMS for Health Professional Students

The goal of the GEMS-HP Program is to provide summer research opportunities in basic and translational research in the areas of Heart, Lung and Blood Diseases to students currently enrolled in Health Professional training including, but not limited to, Medicine, Dentistry, Nursing, Pharmacy, Physician Assistant and Public Health.

The overarching goal of the GEMS-HP Program is to support the development of future biomedical scientists by providing them with research opportunities and exposure to the realistic lifestyle of biomedical research. Therefore we are looking for students who plan to pursue a lifelong career in biomedical research. Students must already be enrolled in a health professional program during the summer that they participate in GEMS-HP. Students who were recently accepted to a health professional programs but will not start that program until the following fall semester are not eligible for the GEMS-HP Program. Next year, the GEMS-HP program start on June 3, 2024 and selected GEMS-HP participants will participate until the next term of medical school starts and will then continue into the academic year until a total of 9 research weeks are performed and a project is completed. To get the maximum benefit from the program, GEMS-HP students will be expected to commit full-time the program and will not be allowed to take extended vacation or days off during the program period. Students who are US citizens or Permanent Residents from the continental US and the US territories

GEMS-HP interns will participate in an intense nine-week program consisting of lectures, professional-development workshops, and a mentored laboratory research assignment. Participating laboratories are drawn from basic science as well as clinical science Departments at the UC-Denver Anschutz Medical Campus (UCD-AMC) performing research relating to heart, lung and blood (HLB) diseases such as cardiovascular disease (CVD), vasculopathies, pulmonary inflammation, acute lung injury, pulmonary fibrosis, asthma, cystic fibrosis, stem cell regenerative medicine (as it relates to HLB applications), COPD, pulmonary hypertension and pediatric pulmonary disease (i.e Bronchopulmonary dysplasia). Research projects in the fields of biochemistry, molecular genetics, cell and developmental biology, human medical genetics, immunology, microbiology and molecular biology in the context of an HLB disease are common.

Other program activities will include lectures in molecular and biochemical techniques, research seminars presented by program faculty and professional development workshops. Also, GEMS-HP participants will be expected to serve as 'peer coaches' to the undergraduate GEMS students. However, the majority of the time, students will be expected to work on their research project.